Awesome thing # 39 - Sunny Monday

What a beautiful monday i had. The only thing that could've made it better would have been a female accompanying me rather than bikki! 


With an almost null of Monday blues i have these days, i was called for lunch by my ol' pardner of evs at IHC and for lack of work, i sure did agree. It was a splendid sunny day, a little hot though and i visited the notorious Lodhi Garden and its forts or tombs which looked absolutely marvelous in the backdrop of white clouds and tall bright green trees. and of course, i did spot a couple of couples behind the trees having their share of fun as the week began :) Once at ihc, we went to the American Diners and had some pancakes along with a delicious pasta with an amazingly good ice tea. Talk was limited and i liked that.

The place, ihc, is such a stress buster, such a relaxer that you could actually spend your anytime of the day there..even alone. We left for home after seeing some paintings and i came back to spend a rather quiet monday at home too. Beautiful, peaceful. :)

Startups

Startups will only work when your team has competitive and smart people, who are smarter and competitiver than you. Else, all enthusiasm, all energy, and all effort will die down and be wasted eventually.

A day that couldn't be awesome, a night that just fell short..

Friday was supposed to be a dreadful day. At least that's what i thought when i woke up, extremely pessimistic. The only good thing, i had hoped to myself, was going to be the lunch i had planned with the same old combo of the ugly man and the pretty damsel. Apart from this, all i was going to do the whole day was run around in Gurgaon, on feet and autos, meeting heads and discussing proposals and probably getting rejected. And I was almost sure that the night's get together at Vikas's would be as dull as the last time. And so with these thoughts, I left home, 2 hrs later than when i was supposed to. 


Turns out, the worst thing about the day was the lunch! :(


While, i spoiled both their lunches for sure (and consequently mine), neither did i have to run around on feet or autos in Gurgaon, nor did i face rejection (well, at least no downright ones) :) Of the 10 i had shortlisted, i visited only 4 schools, because traffic snarls, but in an a\c car with music blasting. 3 of them showed encouragement and 1, hope. My day had begun. I left vershney's car at the office and then ate his lunch, so he would be spared the rod by his wife, and then met a lot of old acquaintances by accident. and  then it was party time.


We reached at Vikas's at around 8 and surely in another 2 hrs, it was the 11 of us. What followed was food, drinks and a laugh riot and more food, drinks and more riots. I did impress everyone again with the flaming shots :D and i was happily complimented by one of the girls in the party ;) 


then, nainy spoke and the rest..became history. We had to leave the awesomeness, that was becoming of the room, to head home in the darkness of the night. 

Awesome thing # 38 - Delhi Darshan

I didn't know it was spelled as Jaynie. All i called her the whole day was Jenny, and it sounded better too! Amar's sister's friend from the US wanted to do a dilli darshan, and I was selected to do the needful. I picked her up at 10:30 AM, on a very hot and humid thursday and as somewhere down inside of me i knew i am not good with women, I had asked Ankur to join in, so i am not ridiculed after the trip. 10 minutes with the lady in the metro, i realized calling Ankur was not a very smart move :P i had already started having a good time! Nonetheless, we started off with Lotus Temple, and went to Qutub. Lunch was had at the royal Moti Mahal of Daryaganj (sumptuous food), while Jenny enjoyed the rickshaw rides in the streets of chandni chowk and chawri bazar. We then took her to Jama Masjid and ate the famous Rabri Faluda of Giani at Khari Baoli in Chandni Chowk for desert. I was still tempting to eat the gol gappe, but then i ignored the urge.


Then we went to see the Akshardham temple, what we later on came to call a mini amusement park with a flavor of religion and nothing more! Spent a fortune on the tickets (well i was the only one paying :( ) but got to see some nice fountain show (with a sucking background music) and a great boat ride. My advise: don't buy the tickets for the movie they show. We also met a very enthusiastic old man who was perhaps more fascinated with the concept of Akshardham than he has ever been with anything. But i did get to know some new things from him. 


The day came to an end and we left for home. But not before i had a plate of gol gappe and let the lady had some as well ;) well, she liked them and on our way back all we discussed about was food food and more food. And of course i learnt about the concept of couch surfing, which maybe i will do some day! and then came the best part. When i dropped her home, i got a very nice, warm, tight hug. Well, i have never got one, and so needless to say..i absolutely loved it :D 


the day was never over yet. how could the bugger amar, let go another opportunity to show his extrovertial skills :) so, he threw a small party at @Live in CP and we (me, him and her) went and had a nice new (for us) wheat beer - Paulaner. Well, after spending a good bit of money in the evening, i didn't mind free drinks!


A day well spent? Absolutely!! :)

Awesome thing # 37 - Anna Hazare and some beer

When i went kite flying on Independence Day and ended up playing cricket on the terrace all the while having a great time, little had i thought where the next day would be taking me. While Anna Hazare was arrested into prison on 16th august, and the whole nation, and more so Delhi, thrown into a turmoil of protest of magnanimous proportion, I was quietly having my breakfast watching some english flick. and then i decided to go and join the protest. Somehow i didnt like the arrested part of the news. 


As i reached the Chattrasal complex, it was easy to see how mad the people actually were. Needless to say, I had never ever in my whole life seen a movement as this. It was huge, and it was scary. and more than me, i found it was the police that were scared. There was an uproar on 'jail bharo' and while i logically wanted to stay out of that, i did not want to miss being a part of this protest as well. I might not agree with lokpal, but certainly i was a big fan of arvind kejriwal and his words were enough to convince me that the lokpal was the only way this government could be taught a lesson. 


Now, i dont actually agree with it completely, but then the country is going down badly..it's falling apart in fact..and with a controversy we ourselves at home are engaged in, i feel all the more needy about bringing this fuckin corruption to a swift end. So, i shouted slogans and when Ankur joined me at the stadium, we decided to show our solidarity by going to India Gate for some candle march. 


Well, it was childish alright, but then..who cared. There were beautiful women there carrying candles :P and on the way, we did have some KFC burgers. and when the protest or the candle light march ended, we did go to Route 4 and gulped a few beers along with delicious pasta. and well, you might say it was shameful of us to do all that while there was a guy who was fighting with us, i will argue by saying we did protest but we had never decided on a hunger strike. We were still with Anna, but if Route 4 decided to honor me by giving me a 'Prevelidge Diner's Card' for being a loyal member that very day, i'd say..why refuse :)

Awesome thing # 36

What started as a very early drab day with a visit to the winter-time court (for some reason) and was soon turning into an extremely boring one, became one of the most awesome days of the week. Not within 5 minutes of switching my laptop on, i received a delighted client's delighted feedback along with a happy news of winning 1000Rs vouchers from one restaurant review website (I had written 7 reviews one fine night for them, without any monetary greed of-course, of which one got selected). Now, even though i have not got any vouchers yet and even though i don't even care that i will, this made me very very happy as it had been 26 years since i had ever won anything like this! :) 


The day continued to be great as i spent my evening in the company of a Tennis racquet and Wilson4 balls and some great shot play :)


In the word's of Rosesh...Whooppieeeeeeee!!!! :D

Awesome thing # 35

Well, Sukhdev might be getting some foodie hotties, but the hottest chicks come to Gulati's 8-), where i dined today with my mom, dad and my brother. After a very long time. I eat vegetarian delicacies and the Lachcha Onions with spicy Paneer Hyderabadi, and Subz Mela were enough to create a flood of water in my mouth!  What an awesome dinner :)

Happy Friendship Day - Awesomeness in Kasauli

You know the best part about best friends? They don't listen to you. So even though I didn't want to go for what turned out  to be one of my best trips, I went! and it went like this. After 3 months of blissful (as told to everyone) marriage, vershney's better half finally had enough of him and decided to stay away for a couple weeks. Vershney too siezed the moment and off we (along with saxo and manglik) went to kasauli to spend the weekend in the luckily super amazing weather. It was a road trip baby!

From paranthas at sukhdev (alongside some hot chiks; somehow you will always find hottie foodies there!), to fighting over getting the steering of the Ritz, to driving on the hill with an overcast weather, to reaching kasauli with drizzle and less than 10m visibility at 6000ft, the trip had just started. The night was spent laughing hysterically (my stomach still pains just at the thought of it) in a luxurious room in an unexpected place, with a bottle of whiskey and flaming shots of vodka (the way we welcomed the so called friendship day) to go with the best biryani I have EVER had! and just before we retired to bed, there was enough time to awaken the entire hotel by ringing car alarms in the parking and running off madly into our beds without a clue :D and did i mention the best sunset I have ever seen, standing at the top of the mountain with nothing between you and the sun, except emptiness and the horizonal mountains? Well, now i did :)

and how could a trip to the hills end, without a trek to an unexplored top! We did find another amazing view and a jungle and of course some snake holes. And yes, just in time we got a gift for vershney as well!

Well, a beautiful trip. and a memorable one. :)


P.S. Thats Awesome Things #27 - #34 for you. Count yourself ;)

Start Living

I have to start this blog with these amazing lines


दिलो में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
नजर में ख्वाबों की बिजलिया लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
हवान की झोकों के जैसे आजाद होके जिन्दा रहना सीखों
तुम के दरियां के लहरों के जैसे बहना सीखों
हर एक लम्हे से तुम मिलो खोलें अपनी बाहें
हर एक पल एक नया समा देखे ये निगाहें
जो अपनी आखों में हैरानिया लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
दिलो में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम

If you carry dreams in your eyes, you are alive. If you carry impatience in your heart, you are alive. If you carry surprise in your eyes, you are alive. 

Yes, I am alive.

Everytime i watch this masterpiece from Zoya Akhtar, I feel alive. Today, i spent some more money and watched it for the third time! The movie evokes so many emotions from within. So many. 

It always takes a movie or a song or a speech by someone else to actually make us realize how we feel from within, what is it that is troubling us and to question, 'do we really have the courage to stand up against it?' Well, we do. All of us do. but as a friend today put it on his social networking page - "zindagi ka sabse bada rog...'kya kahenge log?!'" :) I think it's high time people learn to start living life their way. Start doing what makes you happy. because one day, one day my friends, that honda civic in your garage won't matter to you. and what will, you will have left far far behind. Either don't live to see that day, or start living.

Awesome thing # 26

I watched one of my most favorite movies for the 2nd time in a row, for free, with coke and popcorn, without paying a single dime. That was 5PM. Then I went for a play, and then had dinner, for free and a wonderful super awesome dessert, for free. I was also driven to all the venues mentioned above and back home, you guessed it, for free. Do i even need to say, how my day went? :)